Built by Edmund Scientific this small refractor featured a cemented doublet objective designed by David Rank who also developed the Edmund Rank Kellner Eyepiece. (RKE) The scope was advertised as having a resolution of 1.9 arc seconds. This little scope is sometimes referred to as the Edmund RKE refractor and was quite expensive ($400)

Vote Highlights

Edmund Scientific 60mm f8

I replaced the heavy steel fork with a longer and lighter wooden one with polar access. The rig is light enough to carry and very compact. The optics are absolutely first class- high contrast, no ghosts- equal of any longer focus multi coated optic. Really eye-popping! Doesn't really need the nice finder with a 40mm wide field eyepiece. The focuser is a weak point but useable. Tripod is very good considering extreme ease of use and lightness. Overall, my favorite run out and look scope.

I picked up one of these little refractors (minus the tripod and mount) for only $20 from an estate sale. The optical tube is very nicely constructed and has a good heft to it despite its small size. The rack and pinion works smoothly and has virtually zero play. The scope is of much higher quality than the typical entry level 60mm refractor. The best part of this little scope however , lies in the excellent optics. The Edmund designed and manufactured cemented doublet used in this scope blows away any air-spaced achromat in this size I have ever looked through! And that includes a really nice 1960 vintage towa. Images are of extremely high contrast, and snaps quickly into a unbelievably crisp focus... even at 50x per inch. At 96 and 120x Jupiter displayed 4 belts in high contrast with irregularities visable in one of the equatorial belts, in addition to a clearly visable shadow transit. This is remarkable performance for a 60mm scope. In addition both components of epsilon lyrae were resolved, along with the companion of polaris. On lunar detail images are sharp even at 150x. At 175x image degredation finally becomes apparent. I would rate the lunar and planetary performance of this little refractor the equal of a good 90mm Mak such as the ETX up to at least 120x. Above 120x despite the refractors high contrast, an ETX would begin to pull away because of the increased image brightness. I can understand why this scope cost over $350 in the Edmund Catalog. One's first reaction is "What a ripoff"! But when you realise that quality optics cost more to make, it becomes clear. For example, when Edmund advertised this scope as having a resolution of 1.9 arc seconds, they were not speaking theoretically, they were actually speaking of the actual technical performance of the lens! It was'nt just advertising hipe. The best way to decribe this scope is to call it a "Poor Mans Telvue 60" I rate it a 10 based on the overall excellent optical performance coupled with the fact that they can be obtained for not to much money. This little scope is a real "sleeper".